Not applicable
Not applicable
Not applicable
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to communication networks, and specifically, to a communication billing system that provides interrelated processing of wireless service events and wireline service events to produce a customer bill.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The development of advanced communication networks has taken on critical importance with the dramatic rise in consumer demand for additional services. Examples of these services include high quality voice, data, and video communications. These services are provided; over both wireless and wired mediums and may be provided across one or multiple networks. For billing purposes, each service includes an individual communication billing system associated with the service to process service events and generate total charge records that represents a total billing charge for the respective service. The service events are generated by the system providing the individual service and represent an individual usage of the service. The total charge records from each billing system are provided to a total integration system that integrates the total charge records for each service subscribed to by a customer onto a single customer bill.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a communication billing system for a customer subscribing to a wireline service and a wireless service. On FIG. 1, wireline service events 113 are generated by the wireline system 111 for each individual usage of the wireline service during the course of a billing period. The wireline service events 113 are provided to a wireline billing system 101 by the wireline system 111. The wireline service events 113 are received in a wireline interface 104 and stored in a wireline processor 103 during the billing period. At the termination of the billing period, the wireline processor 103 totals all of the wireline service events 113, applies customer discounts, minimum service charges, taxes, and other promotional discounts or charges to generate a total charge record 115 for the wireline.service. The wireline processor 103 provides total wireline charge record 115 to the total integration system 100.
Substantially concurrently, wireless service events 114 are generated by the wireless system 112 for each individual usage of the wireless service during the course of the billing period. The wireless service events 114 are provided to a wireless billing system 102 by the wireless system 112. The wireless service events 114 are received in a wireless interface 106 and stored in a wireless processor 105 during the billing period. At the termination of the billing period, the wireless processor 105 totals all of the wireless service events. 114, applies customer discounts, minimum service charges, taxes, and other promotional discounts or charges to generate a total wireless charge record 116 for the wireless service. The wireless processor 105 provides the total wireless charge record 116 to the total integration system 100.
The total integration system 100 integrates the total wireline charge record 115 and the total wireless charge record 116 onto a single customer bill 107. Unfortunately, as new services are provided, additional billing systems are required to process service events generated by the new service. Therefore, a need exists in the art for a billing system that processes service events regardless of the source (wireless or wireline) at the event level to generate total charge records for each service that can be integrated onto the customer bill.
The present invention advances the art by providing a single communication billing system that provides interrelated processing at the event level of wireless service events and wireline service events to generate total wireless charge records and total wireline charge records for each wireless and wireline service subscribed to by the customer. In the context of the present invention a service event is defined as an individual usage of a communication service, wherein examples of a communication service include but are not limited to, telephone calls, data calls, audio transfers, video transfers, e-mail sessions, voice mail sessions, video mail sessions, web sessions, and/or other similar services provided over a communication network. These services could be provided over a wireless or wired medium and over one or multiple communication networks.
A first advantage of the present communication billing system is that new services are provided without the addition of new billing systems. A second advantage of the present communication billing system is that network size is reduced, as individual billing systems are not required to process service events from different services. A third advantage of the present communication billing system is that the event level processing of service events from multiple services provides for seamless integration of enhanced billing services such as cross-contribution. A fourth advantage of the present communication billing system is that mailing costs are reduced by the integration of charge records from multiple invoices into a single invoice. A fifth advantage of the present communication billing system is that only one account receivable is required for the integrated single invoice. A sixth advantage of the present communication billing system is that the integrated single invoice reduces a customer""s administrative costs because only a single payment is required for all services. In the context of this application cross-contribution is the application of unused service minutes as a credit across multiple services.
The communication billing system is comprised of a processing system coupled to an interface system. The processing system is configured to process a plurality of wireless service events from a wireless system together at the event level with a plurality of wireline service events from a wireline system to generate total charge records for a plurality of wireless services and a plurality wireline services. The processing system is also configured to generate a customer bill based on the total charge records for the plurality of wireless services and the plurality of wireline services. The interface system is configured to receive the plurality of wireless service events from the wireless system, receive the plurality of wireline service events from the wireline system, and transmit the customer bill for the processing system.